Hamburg – Panasonic, one of the world's leading electronics manufacturers, has changed parts of its organizational set-up towards a new governance structure for certain of its European entities. They opened new branch offices under its Dutch European headquarter entity, Panasonic Europe B.V. in the UK, Spain and Poland. In Spain and Poland, the staff and certain assets of the existing branch offices of German Panasonic Marketing Europe GmbH have been transferred to the new branches as of 1 April 2024. An international CMS team led by Dr Eckart Gottschalk and Dr Philipp Koch provided comprehensive legal advice to Panasonic on this transaction. The focus was on corporate and employment law advice and the coordination of the various steps in different jurisdictions. CMS Germany worked once again closely with CMS firms from the UK, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands. With its renewed organizational set-up, Panasonic is streamlining its governance structure across Europe. The Panasonic Group, founded in 1918, is today a global leader in developing innovative technologies and solutions for wide-ranging applications in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, industry, communications and energy sectors worldwide. The Panasonic Group switched to an operating company system on April 1, 2022 with Panasonic Holdings Corporation serving as a holding company and eight companies positioned under its umbrella. The Group reported consolidated net sales of 8,378.9 billion yen (approx. 59.4 billion Euro) for the year ended March 31, 2023. CMS Germany Dr Eckart Gottschalk, Lead Partner, Hamburg Dr Philipp Koch, Counsel, Hamburg Sonja Schanze, Associate, Hamburg Tjorben Drawe, Associate, Hamburg, all Corporate/M&A Dr Daniel Ludwig, Partner, Hamburg Dr Jacob Hinze, Counsel, Hamburg, both Employment law CMS UK Nick Crosbie, Partner, London George Yuill, Senior Company Secretary, London, both Corporate/M&A CMS Spain Luís Miguel de Dios, Partner, Mad­rid Aleksandra Czajka, Senior Associate, Madrid, both Corporate/M&A María José Ramos Aguilar, Senior Associate, Madrid, Employment law CMS Poland Olga Czyzycka-Szczy­giel, Counsel, Warsaw Magdalena Mentrak, Associate, Warsaw, both Corporate/M&A Michał Tutaj, Senior Associate, Warsaw, Employment law CMS Netherlands Britt Straat, Candidate civil law notary, Amsterdam Panasonic Europe Volkhard Pfaff, General Counsel, Wies­baden Daniela Gardiner, Head of Legal Local Sales Operations, Brack­nell Claudia Neif, Head of Legal DACH, Wies­baden Paulina Prugar, Senior Legal Counsel, Warsaw Jaime Corderas, Senior Legal Counsel, Barcelona Markus Rein, HR-Director, Ham­burg Chris­ti­an Konertz, Employee & Labor Relations Manager, HamburgPress Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com

Frankfurt am Main – Bobst Group SA, a leading global supplier of equipment and services to the packaging industry, has sold its long-standing minority stake of 30% in BHS Corrugated Maschinen- und Anlagenbau GmbH. The transaction sees the majority shareholder, BWV-Well­pap­pen­maschinen Vertriebs-GmbH, acquiring the equity interest back from Bobst Group SA and increasing its majority stake in the BHS Group.A CMS team headed by Dr Hendrik Hirsch advised Bobst Group SA on all legal aspects of the transaction. Ahead of the transaction, CMS also provided Bobst Group SA with comprehensive corporate law advice on its minority stake. Bobst Group SA is based in the Swiss city of Lausanne and is one of the world’s leading suppliers of equipment and services for substrate production, printing and processing. Its customers include the label, flexible packaging, folding box and corrugated board industries. The group generated sales of around CHF 2 billion in 2023. BHS Corrugated Maschinen- und Anlagenbau GmbH is a global supplier of mechanical engineering, plant engineering, lifecycle services and digital solutions for the corrugated board industry. It is headquartered in the Bavarian town of Weiherhammer. CMS Germany Dr Hendrik Hirsch, Partner Dr Maximilian Stark, Senior Associate, both Corporate/M&A Dr Jan Schepke, Partner Dr Armin Dürrschmidt, Partner Marcus Weiler, Senior Associate Dr Philipp Koch, Counsel, all Corporate Stefan Lehr, Partner, Antitrust, Competition & TradePress Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com

Hamburg – Vance Street Capital, a mid-market private equity fund, based in Los Angeles (USA), has acquired Galleon Embedded Computing GmbH. Galleon Embedded Computing GmbH was founded in 2009 and offers computer systems for the aerospace/de­fense sector as well as for demanding industrial and research applications. The acquisition of the German company complements the portfolio of Vance Street Capital, which had previously acquired an affiliated company of Galleon Embedded Computing GmbH in Norway. The parties have agreed not to disclose details of the transaction. CMS advised Vance Street Capital with a team led by lead partner Dr Eckart Gottschalk on all legal aspects of the acquisition. The advice included in particular the structuring of the transaction as well as the drafting and negotiation of the transaction doc­u­ment­a­tion. Press Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com   

Hamburg – Vattenfall has completed a strategic review of its Berlin district heating business and decided to sell it in full to the Federal State of Berlin. An agreement to this effect was signed by...

Hamburg – Wind energy company Nordex has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire a wind power project in San Marcos de Colón in Honduras with French TotalEren S.A. The wind capacity of the project...

Hamburg - Nordex and RWE have signed a put option agreement on the potential sale of Nordex's European wind and photovoltaic development pipeline to RWE. The project development pipeline in the context...

Hamburg - The Japanese energy investment company Daiwa Energy & Infrastructure Co. Ltd. has acquired 40 percent of the shares in Aquila Capital Holding GmbH (together with its subsidiaries "Aquila Capital")...

Hamburg – Airbus and Safeguard have signed an agreement with Hutchinson regarding the sale and transfer of all shares in PFW Aerospace GmbH, a key supplier in the aviation industry. The divestment has...

Hamburg – At the end of the year, the French CMA CGM Group merged its subsidiary shipping companies Containerships – CMA CGM GmbH and Containerships Oy, two Intra-European multimodal logistics experts...

Hamburg – Japanese energy investment company Daiwa Energy & Infrastructure Co. Ltd. has acquired 40 % of the shares in Aquila Capital Holding GmbH (jointly with its subsidiaries “Aquila Capital”)...

Hamburg – Airbus Defence and Space GmbH and LM Industries Group, Inc. have established a joint venture to operate a microfactory in Ottobrunn using direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM) and 3D printing...